Thursday 21 April - Goodbye to Universal.

We planned to spend most of the day by the pool again but first we had to get some shopping done so after getting more petrol (I'm just glad that petrol here is about 50p a litre!) we went to the huge Target supermarket we visited the other day. There was a Starbucks inside so I treated the family to coffee, chocolate smoothies and some biscuits before we hit the aisles. We didn't need to get a lot, just breakfast and lunch things for the next couple of days and some more washing liquid as I planned to try and do all my washing before we left.

Back at the villa we relaxed for the next few hours and for lunch had the food we'd brought home in a doggy bag from Bahama Breeze. What a good idea that is! I was going to start packing but I changed my mind. Packing for the return journey seems to sound the death knell for the holiday so I relaxed back on my lounger and basked in the hot sunshine.

At 6pm we were driving in heavy traffic towards Universal and our last time at the park. There were a lot of people with the same idea and I only hoped it wouldn't be manically busy, but there seemed to be as many people leaving as arriving and Universal Studios seemed a bit quieter than Islands of Adventure.

On the way to the Simpsons ride we saw that Termintor 2 3D was just about to start so in we went. We were herded into a large room and a woman appeared to give a speech about the fictional Cyberdyne Corporation. The story was that we were all there to see what a brilliant company they were, but half way through the presentation, the video is hijacked by a woman and her son, characters from the film who want to bring Cyberdyne down. We then all moved into a movie theatre and donned our 3D glasses for a fantastic film/show with characters on stage and Arnie and another actor in the 3D film. It was brilliant and the special effects were very clever indeed. I would hesitate to take very young children in as at both sides of the theatre huge black robots appeared and had a shoot out and the scary things on the screen seem to come right out at you.

We rolled out of the theatre and straight onto the Simpsons ride where the wait time was only about 20 minutes. It was now getting dark and the park looked beautiful. For me, the Simpsons ride was my favourite, beating even Harry Potter for sheer thrills. I could ride it again and again!

Next up was Men in Black and the wait time was even shorter, which was brilliant. I just couldn't beat the mens' score - Mikey scored about 90,000 while Keith achieved 81,000 so if ever Aliens do attack I'm in good hands. I'm not even going to report my score which was far lower than Sophie's!

Our last experience of the evening was Disaster! - a really good show where the audience is recruited to take part in a film called Mutha Nature. Again, it was very good fun, with several people taking the parts of actors in the film. Christopher Walken appears as a hologram and then the last bit involves a subway ride in New York where we experience an earthquake, fires and floods. At the end we see ourselves on the short film which is very funny.

As we emerged from Disaster! it was almost 10pm and suddenly the sky was lit up with fireworks over the central lake. On the huge globes that are situated in the water, was a montage of all the Universal films which was fantastic for a film buff like me. We stood and watched for the next 20 minutes as fireworks were set off and some truly brilliant films were shown on the globes. It was a lovely ending to a wonderful evening and just reinforced my love of the park. I only hope I will be back again one day.

For dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I had imagined there would be a long wait, but we were shown to a table straight away, right underneath a guitar signed by the group Pearl Jam. It was a very noisy evening but the atmosphere was brilliant, the food very good and the waiting staff friendly and efficient. As it was so late I went for the lighter chicken in marsala sauce with pasta, Keith had salmon and rice but the children opted for burgers which were huge. Keith had a glass of draught Newcastle Brown Ale which he said didn't exist (normally just in bottles) but he enjoyed it nonetheless and got to keep the glass to add to his collection. Walking back through the restaurant - you have to exit through the shop! - we saw loads of rock memorablia and I only wish I'd had the time to look at it all. In the shop, Sophie bought a tee-shirt and Mikey treated himself to a bandana and looked very cool with it on!

CityWalk was still heaving at after 11pm and we walked wearily back to our car and then made the journey home on roads that were heavy with traffic. There was just time for a quick glass of red wine before bed!